Automatic isokinetic sampling device



y 1961 J. ROSINSKI 2,982,131

AUTOMATIC ISOKINETIC SAMPLING DEVICE Filed June 28, 1957 T T F1 1 21 /2 l7 9 2O l6 2 AMPUHER Egg l R R /5 /4 l8 27/ SERVO MOTOR FILTER 2g 30 Z5 V/ 23/ SERVO FILTER MOTOR INVENTOR. PUMP JAN ROSMSN .Uflitsd State .P mw

This inventionrelates' to an automatic device for sampling air and other fluids isokinetically. The automatic feature of my invention consists essentially in the inclusion of'a motor-operated bypass-valve controlled by a Wheatstone bridge or the'like Transducers which are sensitive tochanges in air velocity providethe sensing elements in'suchbridgef I have found that in devices produced in accordance with my'invention the controlled sampling velocity follows changes in wind velocity very accurately.

' Until the adventof my invention the determinations,

bothof concentration of particles andof particle size distribution in a'moving cloud of particulate matter have been extremely uncertain operations. The practice is to set up the sampling equipment for a certain fixed velocity 'matched to average conditionswhich are present in the field test area and which are expected to be present during an experiment. As is well known, in tests carried out in open terrain wind velocityinay change almost continuously." As a'result,-the sampling e'quipment which is set fonoperation'at such fixed operating parameters may introduce a multitude of errors into the final results therefrom. "Errors due to anisokinetic sampling of aerosols were-examinedaiid discussed by H. H. Watson in a paper Report of Sy1nposium V, Aerosolsff Army Chemical @Center, Marylandglune 22, 23, 1953. These errors are a function not only of anisokinetic sampling, but also of suchthingsas sampling tube diameter, the angle of the inlet tube alignment to the wind direction, and the particle size and density of the particulate matter' being studied. Representative data from the above reference are shown'in Table I for particles of about one density.

TABLE 1 Approximate values of C/C 1 As a function of U /U', a, and particle size 1 C/Q ratm of concentration measured and trueconcentration 0 t I 1 a-ingle between inlet tube andwind direction at isokinetic flow w 1 U /U ratio of stream velocity (U and mean sampling velocity (U) Ideally,-samplingshould be conducted isokinetically; ':i.e.,: the sample should be aspirated intothe sampling -fsystem at a'velocity which matches the movement of the shown below, an even more simple device is presented than 2,982,131 .7 Patented May 2, 1961.v

. 2 formation to be sampled, and it is to such an ideal system and devices that the instant invention is directed.

Some methods have been developed for sampling stack gases somewhat isokinetically. However, all of these involve essentially manual adjusting of sampling velocity to a more or less constant stack velocity and have no application to continually varying field conditions.

In view of the foregoing a primary object of the instant inventionis to provide meansfor automatic isokinetic sampling of materials borne in a fluid system.

Other objects, features, and advantages of my invention will become apparent to those skilled in this particular art from the following detailed disclosure, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which;

Figure 1 is a diagram of the control system of one modification of the instant invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of one modification of the instant invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of another modification of the instant invention; and

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of still another modification of the instant invention.

I have developed a continuous isokinetic device for precise sampling of airborne particulates under rapidly changing meteorological condition as found in normal field operations. In several embodiments such device consists of the following major components:

V (1) Two transducers sensitive to changes in. air velocity, such as thermistors, free-spinning turbine wheels, cup anemometers, and pressure plates. V

(2) A null balancing circuit for the transducers.

(3) A means of amplifying the transducer imbalance signal so that it can drive an air flow control device.

(4) A calibrated air flow control. v In other modifications, as will be more particularly those having such components.

' Referring nowto the drawings:

' Figure '1 diagrammatically illustrates the control mechanism of the instant invention. A Wheatstone bridge, indicated generally by the numeral 11, is constructed with a pair of transducers, 12 and 13, a pair of precision resistance elements, 14 and 1S, and a current source, 16. Most preferably the later is a D.C. source such as a battery or the like. Electrical leads, 17 and 18 connect the bridge, 11 with a high input impedance amplifier, 19,

of the type, as for example, manufactured by the Brown Instrument Company, which is in turn electrically connected to a servomotor, 20. Such servomotor, 20, is operably connected to a control valve, 21, for example, a A-inch gate valve which is opened or closed in accordance with the actuational differences acting upon the transducer pair.

In Figure 2 one modification of a device produced in accordance with my invention is diagrammatically illustrated. The orifice portion, 22 of sampling-tube, 23 is so positioned as to be'capable of conforming with and facing into the wind. Suchadjustment for wind direction isachieved by attaching a vane, 24 to the orifice portion, 22 and thus the latteris able to follow wind directions automatically in the x, y and z axes. For purposes of illustration, the transducer elements used in this modification are a pair of thermistors; it, of course being understood, that other types of transducers (12 and 13) of Figure 1 may alsob'eused in my invention. The therof the Wheatstone bridge circuit in Figure 1.

balance of the bridge imparts a signal to the servomotor mistors are used as air' velocity detectors. One such thermistor, 25, is placed external to the sampling tube 23, whereas an internal thermistor, 26, is positioned in the lumen of such tube. The sampling tube leads the air in the direction of the arrows in pipe 27 into collector 28, of various types depending upon the physical state of the material sought to be sensed and the quantitative determination required, as for example, number of particles or the weight of a suspended gas. From the collector the matrix fluid is passed through pump 29, which functions to keep such matrix moving through the device. Such pump, 29, is of the constantvolume type, and may be any convenient design. -It provides such at the. sampling inlet nozzle; thus there is nopressuredropnat suchinlet.

A proportioning control valve, 30, is located external. to

the pump, which when open permits theescape of the matrix. If valve 30 is closed, or onlypartially open, the matrix, after passage through the pump, is directed through bypass conduit, 31, through a filter, 32, which removes all material from the matarix, matrix meter33, pipe 27, and back through the collector. The functioning of such recycling will be later considered.

The operation of such modification is fairly simple. The orifice 22 is faced into the wind by vane 24. As air velocity changes the electrical resistance of the external thermistor likewise changes, thus causing an imbalancing Such imwhich in turn positions the bypass valve 30, connected to the sampling pump 29.

As the valve opening is altered the volume of air passing through the by-pass circuit is controlled, and upon the proper positioning of such valve opening the velocities across both thermistors,.or transducers become equal, at which point the inlet tube is sampling isokinetically.

In actual operation this device operates quite simply.

'It should be recalled that a constant volume pump 29 is preferably used. It is such volume which is the critical limitation in my system; fluid speeds up to such volume are readily handled, and such volume can be readily determined by theoperator. For illustration purposes assume that the pump has an operating capacity of 1000 ml./min., and that at the beginning of the sampling procedure external air velocity equals this figure. Transducer 25 then causes the servomotor to completely open valve 30 and no bypassed air (Vc in the figure) is utilized.

Next assume that external air velocity drops to 400 ml./min. The transducer senses such drop and valve 30 is partially closed to permit the escape of only 400 mL/min. from the system. But, because of the constant volume pump, air through the bypass loop, Vc, flows at the rate of difference between external air velocity and the pump constant, in this case 600 ml./min. Since the 'filter 32 removes all foreign matter from the air, the bypassed volume does not add to the. materials sensed by the collector.

The external transducer 25 senses airspeed changes and acts to initially position valve 30. Final positioning is accomplished when such speed acting upon both transducers has been equalized.

The arrangement in Figure 2 permits the full air flow through the sampler at all times; in this way the pressure drop across the sampler is maintained constant and the sampler operates at maximum efficiency. It should be recalled here that the bypass line in this embodiment is part of a closed loop. For this reason, the gas meter 33 can also be placed downstream of the control valve, in which case it would directly read the air taken in by the sampling tube. The function of the by-pass is to change the volume of air bypassed across the pump until isokinetic conditions are reached. When wind velocity is. decreased the valve reduces the amount of bypassed airi.e., the valve opens. When the bypass is not used the pump operates at full capacity sampling external air only.

In order to .determine the dosage of sampled material,

. 5. the total sampling volume, Vs, must be known. A constant volume of' gas, Vi, is passed through the collector, and a certain volume, V0, is passed through the by-pass loop. Since the volume throughput of the collector, Vi, per unit time, t, is known, as is also Vc, from the reading per unit time of meter 33, Vs may be readily calculated:

The dosage of particulate matter, D, per volume sample is then calculated from the collector reading and the Vs volume:

' l! number of particles second Vs .rnilliliters G gram second Vs milliliter In Figure 3 is illustrated another modification of the instant invention, the elements being essentially the same as that in Figure 2. In Figure 2, it was indicated that there is full air fiow through the sampler at all times, such fiow being determined by pump capacity; in such second illustration the flow through the sampler changes continuously with wind velocity, or the like, but the volume of sampled fluid is indicated directly.

In this embodiment again a pair of thermistors 25 and 26 actuate a servomotor which controls the operable positioning of valve 30, which in turn equalizes both internal and external fluid flow.

In this instance again, a constant volume pump is used. Assume again that the pump has a capacity of 1000 ml./ min. and that air speed equals this figure. In this case the external transducer 25 will completely close valve 30 and all air exhausted from the system follows the route through the inlet tube 23, the collector 28, filter 32, meter 33, and pump 29. As external air speed drops (since the vane 24 compensates for the directional vector component of air velocity, we need only consider air speed) to 400 ml./min., for example, the thermistor-servomotor system operates to open valve 30 and 600 mL/min. are drawn through the valve from the atmosphere. The filter 32 is incorporated in such system primarily to protect the meter and pump from damage by foreign matter or moisture present in the air.

In this embodiment also, simplecalculations are used for determining the amount of material in the air or fluid being studied. The total volume through the inlet nozzle (Vs) passes through the collector, but there is no by-pass throughput. The meter directly reads such volume, and material dosage is readily found by the formulas above.

It will be readilyappreciated that for those embodiments described in Figures 2 and 3 that the transducer elements may include devices such as cup anemometers, pressure plates or turbine wheels.

The thermistor pair compensates for fluid temperature changes and thus it is only the speed changes which effect the servomotor mechanism. However, it should be understood that when thermistors are incorporated into the device it is perferably used to sample particulate matter rather than liquids. Liquid impingement upon the thermistor will cause such a varying temperature change therein that the servomotor will receive improper signals therefrom. Of course, the physical rather than electrical transducers do not suffer this shortcoming.

Still another modification of my invention, namely that which is illustrated in Figure 4, is excellent for the isokiuetic sampling of liquid mist or fog in air. In this device a cup anemometer 34 or the like senses changes in air speed, and it aloneprovides the signal to the servomechanism tov properly position the valve. The rateof sensor movement must be, precalibrated with valve positied, *Flc'w "thrdu' iithe system is'niuchlike that illus trated in Figure 2.

A few results using that embodiment of my invention described in Figure 2 are presented in the following table:

,Sampling velocity, Ws, was calculated by subtracting theby-pass flow from the total collector exhaust flow (which hadbeen previously measured and found constant at 30.3 liters/min. over this'range) and dividing by the sampling .head cross section: area .(l 13 cmfi). .From these 'results it can beseen that such devices accurately follow the changes in the air velocity presented to them, particularly when taken in view of the results of the prior art work illustrated by Watson.

I observed that my isokinetic samplers respond to a change in wind velocity in about 2 seconds. At equilibrium, it was further observed that the balancing motor hunts about its equilibrium position: this can be expected because of the nature of the controlled system.

In all embodiments of my invention the type of sample collector used is determined by the type of materials to be detected. For example, impingers, impactors, absorbers, etc., could be used for this purpose.

It is, of course, understood that the various components of my invention such as collectors, meters, thermistors (and other transducer elements), pumps, and servomechanisms, are commercially available, and that such components, taken individually are not considered as part of this invention. Description has been kept purposely brief since it is felt that those skilled in this particular art, once apprised of my invention, may readily combine these various components into the operative devices shown.

It will be further understood that modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. A device for the automatic isokinetic sampling of fluids comprising in combination: a fluid conveying system having a tubular inlet nozzle and an outlet port, said system being closed except for such nozzle and port; means for changing the position of said inlet nozzle in accord with fluid direction external thereto, and constantly facing the opening of said nozzle into the direction of flow of such external fluid; a collector member in such fluid conveying system to collect material borne in that portion of said external fluid flow passing through said fluid conveying system; a constant volumepump operatively connected in such system; a proportioning valve within such system controlling the exhaust volume thereof; a servomechanism operatively engaged with said proportioning valve; transducer elements connected with such system to produce a signal in accordance with the dilference between the external fluid flow rate and the flow rate of fluid through said inlet nozzle; means connecting said transducer elements to the servomechanism to control such servomechanism in accordance with said signal and therefore to control the proportioning valve, and metering elements within such system to measure fluid volume passage therethrough.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said means for changing the position of said inlet nozzle comprises a fluid vane.

3. A device for the automatic isokinetic sampling of fluids comprising in combination: .a fluid conveying sysing valve within such system controlling the exhaust volume thereof; apair of transducer elements, the first of such elements being positioned external to said inlet nozzle and the second being positioned in the lumen of such inlet nozzle, the external such element measuring environmental fluid speed and the internal such element measuring fluid speed withinsuch nozzle; a servomechanism operatively'engaged with said proportion'ing valve to position said valve in accordance with the-signal received from said transducer elementpair;a filter element positioned in said by-pass loop and metering elements within such fluid conveying system measuring fluid volume passage therethrough.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein said means for changing the position of said inlet nozzle comprises a fluid vane.

5. The device of claim 3 wherein said pair of transducer elements consist of cup anemometers.

6. The device of claim 3 wherein said transducer elements consist of pressure plates.

7. The device of claim 3 wherein said transducer elements consist of turbine wheels.

8. A device for the automatic isokinetic sampling of fluids comprising in combination: a fluid conveying system having a movable tubular inlet nozzle and an outlet member, said system being closed to its external environment except for such nozzle and member, said inlet nozzle having an air vane positioned thereon permitting said nozzle to face directly into its environmental fluid stream; a by-pass loop in such fluid conveying system; a collector member in such fluid conveying system to collect material borne in that portion of said external fluid passing through said fluid conveying system; a constant volume pump operatively connected in such system; a proportioning valve in such system controlling the exhaust volume thereof and the volume of fluid passing through said by-pass loop; a pair of thermistor elements, the first of said elements positioned external to said inlet nozzle and the second of such elements positioned in the lumen of said inlet nozzle, such external thermistor determining environmental fluid speed and said internal thermistor determining the relationship of said external speed with fluid speed through such inlet nozzle; a servomotor system connected within such air conveyor system controlling the throughput of said exhaust valve, said servomotor system acting in accordance with the signal generated from said thermistor elements; a filter element positioned in said by-pass loop whereby only sampled material-free fluid is directed back to said collector from said by-pass loop, and metering elements within such system indicating fluid volume passage therethrough.

A device for the automatic isokinetic sampling of fluids comprising in combination: a fluid conveying system having a tubular inlet nozzle and an outlet port, said system being closed except for such nozzle and port; means for changing the position of said inlet nozzle in accord with fluid direction external thereto, and constantly facing the opening of said nozzle in the direction of flow of such external fluid; a collector member in such fluid conveying system to collect material borne in that portion of said external fluid flow passing through said fluid conveying system; a constant volume pump operatively connected in said system; a calibratable proportioning valve within such system controlling the exhaust spee s-1 volume thereof; a servomechanism operatively engaged with said proportioning valve; a transducer element positioned external to the lumen of said inlet nozzle operatively connected with said servomechanism, said transducer sensing fluid speed and activating said servomechanism when Isuchfluid speed differs from that-for which said proportioning valve is calibrated, and metering elements within said system-to measureifluid volume. passage therethrough.

10. The "device of claim 9 whereinsaid transducer consists of a cup anemometer.

11. A device for the automaticisokinetic sampling of fluids comprising in combination: a fluid conveying system having a tubular inlet nozzle and an outlet port, said system being closed exceptjor :such nozzle and port; means for changing-the-position of said inlet nozzle in accord with'fluid direction external thereto, and of constantly facing thegopening of said nozzle into the direction offlow of such external -fluid;-a-colleeetor memher in such fluid conveying system to collect material borne in that portion of said external fluid flow passing through said fluid conveying system; a constant volume and metering elements within said system to measure fluid volume passage therethrough.

12; The device of claim 11 wherein said transducer consists of a cup anemometer.

ReferencesCited in the file-of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,517,144 Anderson Nov. 25, 1924 2,699,679 Monger Jan. 18, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 592,818 Great Britain Sept. 30, 1947 

